Bills to Defund ACORN Could Have Constitutional Problems

Or, maybe not:

Despite overwhelming support in Congress, the effort to turn off the federal spigot that funds ACORN may be facing constitutional and political roadblocks.

In an effort spearheaded by Republicans, the House and Senate voted earlier this month to sever ACORN's federal funding after a series of undercover videos showed some of the group's employees offering advice to a couple posing as a pimp and prostitute on how to skirt tax and immigration laws.

But some legal experts say that the provisions of the bills may be unconstitutional. And the House bill in particular, they say, risks alienating defense contractors, who are longtime allies of Republicans.

The bills are illegal, some skeptics say, because their intent -- to cut off funds to a single group -- violates the constitutional guarantee that lawmakers may not punish a person or group of a crime without a trial, a legal concept known as a bill of attainder that has been reinforced by the Fifth Amendment.

A report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, a think tank for lawmakers, found that the bills could be unconstitutional if lawmakers intended to punish ACORN.

"While the regulatory purpose of ensuring that federal funds are properly spent is a legitimate one, it is not clear that imposing a permanent government-wide ban on contracting with or providing grants to ACORN fits that purpose, at least when the ban is applied to ACORN and its affiliates jointly and severally," the report read.

"Congress must not be in the business of punishing individual organizations or people without trial and that's what this Amendment does," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. , who voted against the House bill. "Whatever one may think of the organization, the Constitution's clear ban on Bills of Attainder is there for the protection of all of our liberties."

But aides to the lawmakers who introduced the measures say they pass constitutional muster.

A spokeswoman for Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., who offered two anti-ACORN amendments that were adopted by the Senate, said the senator's goal was "to protect the taxpayer from waste, fraud and abuse."

"ACORN is an organization that has a pattern and culture of employees engaging in fraud and other illegal behavior," Ann Marie Hauser said in an e-mail to FOXNews.com. "Receiving federal funding is a privilege, not a right."

I think this will probably stand up to constitutional scrutiny. There's no legal requirement to give funds to entities engaged in organized crime. If ACORN can successfully argue the government can't cut them off, then the Mafia needs to get in line next.